By Eric Berry
My disdain for the New York Yankees goes way back, and I’m proud of it. My Dad brought me up right, he even swayed my Mom from a Dodgers fan (first Brooklyn Dodgers where she was born) and convinced her that rooting for the Sox was part of a greater cause. Unfortunately, she never got to see the Red Sox break the curse-at least not from a perspective here on planet Earth. However, I’m sure on that night of the Red Moon (remember it?) that she too was celebrating for us in Heaven’s hallowed halls while we finally could tell every smug Yankees fan to finally just shut the hell up. Not that at that point we couldn’t already as the pinstripes had lost in the biggest comeback in Major League Baseball history, or sports history!
Even now when I talk to Yankees fans it seems they forget what’s happened over the last 14 years. You know, Boston has won 3 world championship to the Yankees 1(and they won that with Arod so those same fans aren’t real warm and fuzzy with that one) and also have dominated the AL East over the last few years. Now, if you have followed my blogs you remember about my post office conversation. You don’t remember it? OK. This summer at the check out line there was this conversation:
Me to a Smug Yankees Fan: “Boy it’s too bad the Yankees and Red Sox will both win 100+ games and one of them will be out quickly in the playoffs”.
Smug Yankees Fan: “Yup, we’ll get in the playoffs and the Red Sox will lose and the Yankees will just continue along the way.”
I just shook my head. What I wanted to say would sound something to the Emergency Broadcast System. You know, blocking out all the vulgarities.
Well, the Yankees are on their way and now the narrative has changed. It’s, ‘Go Astros’, or ‘The Red Sox will be golfing soon’. Yeah, Yeah. Pick a new tune. Get a life.
I’m hoping my Mom and Dad are celebrating our first-round win over the now handicap improving, golf game playing New York Yankees!
We may lose to the Astros. But there’s a couple things I know. We didn’t lose to you, oh smug Yankees fan. And we still have a chance to win it all!
The NFL and holdouts in general
There are a lot of issues with the NFL. From the star-spangled discord to the cupcake treatment of the prima donna quarterbacks to holdouts. However, one thing that really grinds me is the Le’Veon Bell holdout. Can you even imagine not going to your job for a week and losing $852,941 dollars? Nope, neither can I. And that’s the problem. It doesn’t matter if a contract was signed anymore. You had a deal with your employer? Doesn’t matter.
It’s the same thing with the Minnesota Timberwolves Jimmy Butler. He too has a contract but is lobbying for a trade and crapping all over his teammates, coaches, and general manager publicly. Jimmy Butler’s salary this year is $19,841,627 bucks! I can see why he’s pissed. No one should have to play with anyone they don’t like for that amount of money, and not in Minnesota with those guys and those coaches! Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. People are starving all over the world and a guy who is making almost 20 million dollars a year is unhappy and all the networks are covering it, and him, like he has a legitimate gripe. By the way, he is making the same amount next year too. Poor Jimmy.
VT HS Football
The Division One football standings would make former NFL commissioner and the late, Pete Rozelle, a very happy man. Parity abounds in the standings. Two teams with 5 wins and 5 teams with 4 wins with 2 weeks to go in the regular season. Rutland and MMU are in the cat bird seat. If they continue to win, they are going to put themselves in great position. However, lurking right behind them are Rice, Hartford, SJA, Colchester, the Seawolves, and Middlebury. This week’s games will shape things up a lot, but, I can’t remember such a tight race this late in the season in quite some time. It’s also not completely unreasonable to think that a 6 or 7 seed could end up in the title game.
In Division Two Burr and Burton is clearly the favorite to win it all. They will be waiting for Bellows Falls and Fair Haven to fight it out just for the right to face their talented offense under Jason Thomas. Thomas has a juggernaut in Manchester, Vermont!
In Division Three the engraver might already be putting the W on the trophy, followed by OODSTOCK. I’m not sure anyone is going to overcome the depth of talent that
That’s all I got. Go Sox, Go Purple People Eaters!